Playing the game: the education of girls in private schools on Vancouver Island
Date
2009-08-25T20:14:05Z
Authors
Trueman, Alice Mary
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Abstract
By the mid-nineteenth century academics began to replace the accomplishments in schooling for middle and upper class girls in Britain. Immigrants brought both models to Vancouver Island. Angela College, a religious school clinging to the past, represents the old; Norfolk House, an urban largely day school, and Queen Margaret’s, a country boarding school with some day students, illustrate the two types of the new, reformed schools. This study draws on personal accounts, archival records, and contemporary newspapers to show that parents chose private schools for reasons of ethnic preservation, upward social mobility, and dissatisfaction with local public schools. A comparison of the founding, governance, finance, buildings and grounds, curriculum, headmistresses and teachers, students, parents, and succession plans revealed similarities and striking differences. Parental preference for strong leadership, scholarship, and character-development enabled Norfolk House and Queen Margaret’s to survive; the lack thereof combined with poor management doomed Angela College to failure.
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Keywords
education, girls, schools, headmistress, character, academics